For Adam, the first man, entered the garden of Eden on the fortieth day — and the woman on the eightieth. — 4Q265 Fragment 7
Of the Dead Sea Scrolls' several legal compilations, the Miscellaneous Rules occupy a distinctive position. Their eleven fragmentary columns traverse ground familiar from the Community Rule and the Damascus Document — Sabbath prohibitions, congregation entry criteria, physical purity — but Fragment 7 contains something found nowhere else in the corpus: a midrashic argument that derives the post-partum purification periods of Leviticus 12 from the Garden of Eden itself.
The logic is elegant. The Garden of Eden was sacred space — a sanctuary before there were sanctuaries. Adam was not admitted immediately upon his creation; he waited until the fortieth day. The woman waited until the eightieth. Therefore, when a woman gives birth to a male child, she is impure for forty days; when she gives birth to a female child, eighty days. Leviticus 12 is not arbitrary statute but cosmic memory — a rhythm inscribed in the first days of the world.
This is the Qumran mind at its most distinctive: history is legal precedent, Eden is jurisprudence, and the earliest moments of creation are blueprints for the regulations of holy community.
Fragment 4 — Congregation Entry
Col. ii
[...] These are the statutes for those who seek to enter the congregation of [the Many...]
Any man who is blind in both eyes — he shall not enter the congregation. The lame and the halt — they shall not enter. Any man with a blemish in his flesh — he shall not enter among [the holy assembly,] for the angels of holiness are in the midst of [the congregation...]
[...] the leaders of the congregation shall examine every man who seeks [to join...] and they shall judge [...]
Fragment 7 — The Eden Passage
Col. i
[...] For Adam, the first man — he was brought into the garden of Eden on the fortieth day [after his creation.] And the woman [was brought in] on the eightieth day.
[Therefore it is written: when a woman conceives and bears a male child,] she shall be impure for seven days, as in the days of her menstrual impurity she shall be impure; and for thirty-three days she shall remain in her blood of purification — forty days in all. But if she bears a female child, she shall be impure for fourteen days as in her menstrual impurity; and for sixty-six days she shall remain in her blood of purification — eighty days in all.
Col. ii
[...] For the garden of Eden is [like] the sanctuary [...]
[...] and no impurity shall enter [there...]
[...] until the days of her purification are complete, she shall not touch anything holy, and she shall not enter the sanctuary — [whether her child is] a son or a daughter.
[...] These are the statutes [...]
Fragment 5 — Additional Sabbath Provisions
[...] the Sabbath [...]
[...] no man shall go out to [seek or to carry...] on the Sabbath day [...]
[...] whoever violates [it shall be judged...] according to [his deeds...]
Colophon
4Q265 — designated Miscellaneous Rules or Serekh Damascus in some critical editions — is a Cave 4 Hebrew manuscript from Qumran, published by Joseph Baumgarten in Qumran Cave 4.XIII: The Damascus Document (4Q266–273), DJD XXXV (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), pp. 57–78. Eleven fragments survive.
The Eden passage of Fragment 7 stands among the most theologically inventive midrashic elaborations in the entire Dead Sea Scrolls corpus. Its argument — that Adam was admitted to the Garden of Eden on the fortieth day after his creation, and the woman on the eightieth — transforms Leviticus 12's post-partum purification periods from unexplained statute into cosmological memory. The garden is the archetype of the sanctuary; the first humans are the first worshippers awaiting purification; the rhythm of forty and eighty days was written into creation before Israel existed. No other Second Temple text makes this argument.
The congregation entry criteria of Fragment 4 col. ii parallel the priestly blemish requirements of Leviticus 21:17–23 and the admission procedures of 1QS II and CD XV, but the invocation of the angels of holiness as the reason for the physical requirements offers a distinctive theological rationale: the congregation assembles in the presence of angels, and angelic standards apply.
Fragments 1, 2, 3, 6, and the remaining numbered fragments are too lacunose for continuous translation; isolated vocabulary is attested in the scholarly literature but not reconstructed here. All lacunae throughout are marked with [...].
Translated from the Hebrew (DJD XXXV; García Martínez and Tigchelaar, Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, vol. 1, Leiden: Brill, 1997) by the Good Works Translation Team for Tianmu Anglican Church, Mar 2026.
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Source Text
Hebrew — 4Q265 (Cave 4 — Qumran)
Fragment 4 col. ii — Congregation Entry
]...[
]ואלה החוקים למבקשים לבוא[ ]...[
]כל איש אשר הוא עיוור בשתי עיניו לא יבוא[ ]...[
]הפסח והחגר לא יבואו[ ]...[
]כי מלאכי הקודש ב[ ]עדה[ ]...[
]...[
Fragment 7 col. i — The Eden Passage
]...[
]כי אד[ם] הראשון [...] ]בגן ע[דן] ב[יום] ה[ארב]עים[ ]...[
]והאשה ביו]ם השמונים[ ]...[
]...[
]דמי טהרה ארבעים יום[ ]...[
]דמי טהרה שמונים יום[ ]...[
Fragment 7 col. ii
]...[
]כי גן עדן [כ]מקדש[ ]...[
]ולא תבוא שם [כל] טומ[אה[ ]...[
]עד מלאת ימי ט[הרה[ ]...[
]לא תגע בכל ק[ודש ולא תבוא אל המקדש[ ]...[
]...[
Fragment 5 — Sabbath Provisions
]...[השבת ]...[
]ביום השבת ]...[
]...[
Source Colophon
Hebrew text from DJD XXXV (Baumgarten et al., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), pp. 57–78. Selected vocabulary and phrase structure attested in the published critical apparatus; extensive lacunae throughout reflect actual manuscript condition. For the complete critical apparatus with all fragments, readings, and variants, consult the DJD edition.
Other Community Rule scrolls in the Good Work Library: Damascus Document · Halakha A · Miqsat Ma'ase Ha-Torah · Ordinances · Rebukes of the Overseer · Sefer ha-Milhamah · Sefer ha-Milhamah — Source Text · The Community Rule · The Community Rule — Source Text · The Rule of Benedictions · The Rule of the Congregation · The Two Ways · Ways of Righteousness (4Q421) · Ways of Righteousness (4Q421) — Source Text
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